IT Manager Career

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The IT manager of a company is an employee who manages information processes. He understands not only the technical aspects of the IT environment, but also its interaction with other areas: financial, personnel, market. The task of the manager within the company is to know the goals of the company’s business development, be able to present business processes for their automation, make the right choice of an information system and calculate the effect of its application. Its external goals are to provide customers with quality IT services or organize the sale of information products, like defined in the ITIL Foundation books: https://itil.press/.

FEATURES OF THE PROFESSION

IT manager is a relatively new profession. In some organizations, she was treated with disdain for a long time, and sometimes the position of IT manager, on the contrary, was introduced for the sake of keeping up with fashion trends. Often such an employee had a technical education, but knew nothing about management, or was a general manager, and had little understanding of information systems. A former system administrator or call center operator was sometimes appointed to this post. But its function has already been clearly defined – to serve as an intermediary between technicians and internal users or external customers. Part of such a position is called an IT services manager.

According to this document, an IT manager is an employee whose responsibilities include managing information resources, services, environments or innovations. This is the director of the IT department, and the head of the user support service, and the head of the computer center – up to the government official responsible for the development of computer technologies in the region.

In a small organization, all of these tasks can be concentrated in the hands of one leader. In a large IT company, each issue is handled by a separate department.

WORK RESPONSIBILITIES

Working as an IT manager involves the following tasks:

• personnel Management;
• calculation of the budget of the information environment;
• consumer and customer satisfaction analysis;
• development and provision of quality IT services;
• negotiations with customers and equipment suppliers;
• search and evaluation of innovative technologies, proposal for their implementation;
• determining the timing of work on IT projects;
• implementation of the company’s IT strategy;
• planning the effective implementation of IT projects;
• organizing the interaction of IT specialists with other employees.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

An IT manager is versed in computer technology and programs, in the principles of building a network architecture, in the basics of programming and creating information bases. At the same time, he should know how to draw up a contract, prepare a report, and calculate a budget. He also feels free to conduct business negotiations with partners and interviews with applicants.

The IT service manager must quickly understand the needs of the audience with which he will interact. It must translate the wishes of customers or management into a language understandable to technical experts. It is the manager who first has to understand how an idea can work in practice, and how to achieve it. If a manager coordinates the actions of several IT teams, his goal is to bring their efforts together and take care of the success of the common project.

An IT manager needs such personal qualities as the ability to lead, sociability, and a willingness to constantly learn new things. He must professionally assess risks, follow the achievements of the IT market, be interested in news in his field.